MUNICIPAL POLITICS IN 

PARIS IN 1789 



BY 



HENRY E. BOURNE 



REPRINTED FROM THE 



Itwman pineal §muw 



VOL. XI NO. 2 



JANUARY, iqc6 



[Reprinted irom The American Historical Review, Vol. XI., No. 2, January, 1906.] 



MUNICIPAL POLITICS IN PARIS IN 1789 

The municipal revolution in Paris in July, 1789, spared none 
of the ancient institutions of local government. An electoral as- 
sembly had been adapted hastily to the task of governing the city. 1 
It had been assisted, and in some instances controlled, by assemblies 
of voters meeting in their districts. The irregularity of such a gov- 
ernment became more and more apparent as the first excitement sub- 
sided. To the Parisians, however, this irregularity consisted not so 
much in the displacement of the legal authorities as in its contradic- 
tion of the new doctrine of popular sovereignty. Since the electors 
possessed no mandate to govern the city, the more eager district 
leaders demanded the election of another assembly to assume this 
work provisionally and to prepare a municipal constitution. Two 
officers — the mayor, Bailly, and the commander of the National 
Guard, Lafayette — had been chosen in one of the tumultuous gather- 
ings of July and were now confirmed by the districts. This pro- 
visional government could render important services to the country, 
for upon the re-establishment of order in Paris depended the fate of 
the Revolution at the outset. Whether the Parisians possessed the 
right or had the capacity to reorganize their own municipal institu- 
tions was another question. For several months the field was clear. 
Not until the latter part of November did the National Assembly 
announce an intention of providing a municipal law for Paris. 
Even after that time the constitutional committee of the Assembly 
worked in sympathy with the committee of the Paris assembly, and 
the law which was enacted in May, 1790, was to some extent the 
joint work of the two. As the law did not go into effect until 
October, the provisional government which the Parisians had or- 
ganized was long in control. They were engaged upon this task 
from the time when the electoral assembly was dismissed until the 
middle of November. The interest of the period centres in the 
manner in which they did the work and in their constitutional ideas. 
Furthermore, during this period was fashioned a remarkably effec- 
tive instrument of revolutionary action, the use of the districts as a 
basis of agitation. In 1789 it was employed against the communal 

1 See the article in the Review for January, 1905 (X. 280-308), entitled 
"Improvising a Government in Paris in July, 1789," by Henry E. Bourne. 

AM. HIST. REV.. VOL. XI. — 18. (263) 



264 H. E. Bourne 

assembly ; later it was turned against the king and even against the 
national legislature. 

I. 

The new assembly met July 25 and superseded the electors five 
days later. Early in August, to provide members for service on the 
committees, sixty more deputies were chosen, raising the total num- 
ber to one hundred and eighty. Nearly half had served in the as- 
sembly of electors. In the committees, which were now recon- 
stituted, 1 still other electors were retained on account of their ex- 
perience. Although the assembly had been called together by 
Mayor Bailly to prepare a plan of government for Paris, it became, 
by virtue of the powers given to the deputies in their credentials and 
by the force of circumstances, primarily an administrative body. 
Bailly had little faith in salvation by speechmaking, and he thought 
that nearly all the work could be done in committees. Whether the 
assembly was authorized to legislate for the city was later a bitterly 
disputed question. Its claim to a representative character was made 
at once in the formal style adopted — Assembly of the Representa- 
tives of the Commune of Paris. 

Bailly had called the assembly into being, but from the beginning 
it ceased to remember its creator. As an administrative body it 
should, so thought the Mayor, advise with him and with Lafayette, 
but, he bitterly recalled, it " accustomed itself readily and at once to 
administer alone, to forget him completely, and to act as if he had 
asked its formation in order to lay down his office "'. For example, 
he was not informed of the plan of military organization until public 
discussion in the districts brought it to his attention. If there was 
anything the deputies were expected to do in accordance with the 
letter of summons, it was to consult with him about a plan of muni- 
cipal government; but their committee ignored him, and when he 
wished to learn the main features of the scheme, he was obliged to 
make inquiries. An incident, small in itself, revealed clearly the as- 
sembly's attitude. Bailly was in constant attendance at the com- 

1 The names of the committees were as follows : The comite permanent or 
provisoire of the electors had been divided into four sections or bureaus.: 1, Dis- 
tribution (of business) ; 2, Police ; 3, Subsistence ; 4, Military Affairs. The name 
comite provisoire was dropped August 2 apropos of a complaint against this 
committee because of its decree making printers responsible for anonymous pub- 
lications, and the name bureau was substituted. Later in August four other com- 
mittees were added : comite d' administration des revenues et charges de la Ville ; 
comite de redaction ; bureau de la repartition et de la perception des impots ; 
bureau des secours. The bureau des secours was withdrawn September 10 be- 
cause the treasury was empty, and all demands were referred to the comite 
d' administration des revenues. Lacriox, Actes de la Commune de Paris, I. 81, 333 
note 1, 345, 535. 



Municipal Politics in Paris in 1789 265 

mittee of subsistence, for upon its efforts depended the food supply 
of Paris and, for this reason, the peace of the city. He informed the 
assembly that he could not always preside and asked that two vice- 
presidents be appointed to take his place. This was done, but the 
men who were chosen forgot the prefix when they signed the records 
and soon transformed themselves into his rivals. 1 Their names, not 
his, appeared at the bottom of acts. To such a degree was the prac- 
tice carried that it excited protests from some of the districts. One 
of these sent a delegation to the assembly expressing in vigorous 
terms its disapproval. Its speaker told the members of the assembly 
that the commune had named Bailly " its mayor, that is, its chief, 
consequently the chief of this assembly." " Your districts ", he 
added, " have deputed you to become his co-operators in the great 
work of municipal organization and not to exclude him from it." 2 
Bailly was partly responsible for these rebuffs. His functions as 
mayor had never been precisely described, and in a measure it be- 
longed to him to define their limits. Unhappily for the influence of 
his office, in cases where the exercise of authority was dangerous 
he often contrived to throw the necessity of decision upon the as- 
sembly and in this way increased its power to the detriment of his 
own. 3 

Such conflicts of authority are not surprising considering the 
utter ruin of the older institutions of local government and the dis- 
trust commonly born of revolutionary excitement. Moreover, gov- 
ernment was something like a novel and dangerous toy, and these 
children in politics jostled one another in their eagerness to try their 
hand at it. The times were indeed difficult. Not a day passed but 
a new question was forced upon the attention of the deputies. 

'Bailly, Memoires, II. 147, 195-197, 243-244; Lacroix, Actes, I. 24, 27, 28 
note 3. 

2 Proces-verbal du transport du Comite civil, de police, . . . des Enfans 
Rouges (Bibl. Nat., piece), August 6. On August 12 the Premontres sent in a 
similar protest, declaring " qu'il ne peut concevoir comment Monsieur Bailli, elu 
Maire, c'est-a-dire, Chef de la Commune, ne parait cependant pas l'etre de 
l'assemblee des representants de cette Commune, puisque tous les actes qui emanent 
de cette Assemblee portent les noms de differens Presidens lorsque lui seul a 
ete porte a cette place eminente, par le vceu unanime et le suffrage universel de 
ces Concitoyens." District des Premontres, 11 aoiit, 1789 (Bibl. Nat., piece). Cf. 
Lacroix, I. 179. 

3 For example, August 20, when a deputation of actors from the Theatre- 
frangais came to ask permission to give Chenier's Charles IX., he would have 
refused had he dared to do so, for he thought such a play might compromise the 
good feeling toward the monarchy. He adds, " Je pris mon parti de renvoyer 
la decision a l'assemblee. Les assemblies ont cela de commode, leur responsa- 
bilite est si partagee, qu'elle est nulle." Memoires, II. 287. It was equally 
characteristic of the man that, although he had retained the secretary of Flesselles, 
he dismissed him as soon as the Palais Royal began to murmur. Ibid., 198-199. 



266 H. E. Bourne 

Often an immediate answer seemed necessary under penalty of an 
uprising. Early in its career the assembly saw the Hotel de Ville 
invaded, as under its predecessors, by a mob crying for blood, this 
time of one of the highest officers of the new government, the Mar- 
quis de la Salle, who had so patriotically effaced himself when 
Lafayette was named commander of the National Guard. The 
stock of powder at the arsenal had been depleted and the storage- 
room was partly filled by a quantity of powder useless for Paris but 
valuable in the trade with the coast of Guinea. The managers of 
the arsenal decided to send this powder to Essonnes, where was one 
of the principal powder factories, and to bring back a new supply 
for Paris. Lafayette was not at hand, and La Salle signed the 
order. Rumors spread through the city that it was simply another 
attempt to render Paris defenseless, and the crowd rushed to the 
Hotel de Ville, demanding a victim. Fortunately, La Salle could 
not be found and the mob was finally dispersed by the National 
Guard. 

The efforts of the assembly to preserve order were compromised 
by the increasing number of deserters from the royal army who hur- 
ried to Paris, hearing of the good fortune of the gardes francaises, 
the heroes of the July insurrection and the pets of the districts. 
These deserters not only swelled the size of each mob, but also 
quarreled with one another, threatening to turn the city streets into 
a battle-field. The only remedy was to order the soldiers at the city 
gates to turn back all deserters and to request the minister of war 
and the towns to arrest them on the roads leading to Paris. 1 An 
equally serious danger was the multitude of destitute men gathered 
at the government works on Montmartre. These had been estab- 
lished in the spring to relieve distress caused by the exceptional 
severity of the past winter. The trouble had been rendered more 
acute by the paralysis of industry and trade since July, so that by 
the second week of August this army of unemployed numbered be- 
tween thirteen and twenty-one thousand. Necker threw the re- 
sponsibility for its control upon the city, because the royal govern- 
ment was without force. 2 These dangers were increased by the con- 
stant menace of famine. Although the crops had been abundant, 
the farmers held back the grain for fear of being plundered on the 

1 Lacroix, Actes, I. 217, 223-224, 245, 273-274; Revolutions de Paris, no. 
VI., p. 13. 

2 These works were finally closed August 23. The provincials were sent 
home, while Parisians were promised employment in the municipal works. Later 
in the fall many of the provincials were back in Paris. Lacroix, I. 168, 177, 
192-193, 260-261; Patriote frangais, no. XX.; Bailly, Memoires, II. 257; Godard, 
Expose des Travaux, 20. 



\ 



> 



\ 



Municipal Politics in Paris in 1789 267 

road or at the markets. Sometimes agents despatched to other 
towns to buy for the city were arrested as suspected monopolists. 
Early in August Paris was obliged to send a force of four hundred 
men to Provins to secure the release of two such agents. 1 
, Occasionally it was legislation of the National Assembly which 
multiplied the difficulties of the Commune. As soon as the decrees 
of August 4 abolishing feudal privileges were known, there was a 
general massacre of game in the neighborhood of Paris. The pre- 
serves at Vincennes, belonging to the Duke of Orleans, still a popu- 
lar leader, were alone respected. Even the guards at the city gates 
deserted their posts to join in the sport, until the assembly sent 
special detachments of soldiers to stop this disorder. 2 The discus- 
sions of the question of granting the king a veto also caused trouble. 
The agitators at the Palais Royal attempted to organize a march 
upon Versailles, which, but for the promptitude and energy of the 
Commune, might have forestalled the events of October 5 and 6. 3 
Under the circumstances, it is not surprising if the deputies re- 
peatedly deferred the specific task which they had been asked to 
perform and if they did not altogether succeed in pleasing either the 
mayor who had called them or the districts that had sent them. 

II. 

The government of the city remained provisional, resting for its 
authority upon the consent of the Parisians, and treated with defer- 
ence by the National Assembly and by the whole country because of 
the triumphant part it had taken in the events of July. The royal 
government was not strong enough to dispute the powers of the vic- 
torious city, and the National Assembly was too busy during the 
summer to undertake the problem of municipal reorganization. 
From time to time and for specific purposes Paris received from 
Assembly or king grants of power. Early in August, when dis- 
order had become general throughout the kingdom, the Assembly 
declared it to be the duty of the municipalities as well as of the 
National Guard to oppose attacks upon property and particularly 
upon convoys of grain. A few days later, after the Assembly had, 
by its decrees abolishing feudalism together with inequalities in 
taxation and many special privileges, promised to remove the most 
serious grievances, it was ready to use force to suppress disorder. 
This force it dared not intrust to the royal government. Accord- 

1 Lacroix, Actes, I. 91-92, 94. 

2 Ibid., I. 148, 258; Revolutions de Paris, no. V., p. 17. 

3 Ibid., no. VIII., pp. 7 et seqq. ; Lacroix, Actes, I. 423-425, 435-437; Bibl. 
Nat. MSS. fr. nouv. acq. 2671, fols. 10, 11. 



' 



268 H. E. Bourne 

ingly, the municipalities were authorized to use their own militia or 
to call upon the royal troops. For the quelling of riot the sword 
was definitely taken from the hands of the king by the provision 
that the officers of the army should swear never to employ their 
soldiers except on a requisition from the civil authorities. 1 

The powers which Paris obtained over the means of securing a 
supply of food were, at least in spirit, contrary to the policy of the 
National Assembly, which, August 29, freed the grain-trade 
throughout the interior of the country from all the obstacles created 
by a paternal and arbitrary government. According to a project 
drawn up a few days later by the communal assembly, the Paris 
buyers were to have the preference at all grain-markets within 
twenty-five leagues, after the local needs had been supplied. The 
farmers were to carry every week a certain portion of their crop to 
these markets. To insure the success of the plan the municipality 
asked for the powers which had belonged to the lieutenant-general 
of police and to the royal commissioners. The National Assembly 
was evidently unwilling to revive one of the features of the old 
regime and referred the deputation of Paris to the king, who granted 
the request by a decree in council, September 7, although he pro- 
vided that these powers should be valid only for the remainder of 
the year. 2 

1 Proces-verbal de I'Assemblee nationale for August 5 and 10 ; Duvergier, 
Lois, I. 36-37. The oath read, " Nous jurons de rester fideles a la nation, au roi, 
et a la loi, et de jamais employer ceux qui seront a nos ordres contre les citoyens, 
si nous n'en sommes requis par les officiers civils ou les officiers municipaux." 

2 The first form of the request, decided upon September 2, appears in the 
proces-verbal for that day, Lacroix, Actes, I. 454-455. The subject came up 
again September 4, ibid., I. 473-474. On September 6 the assembly, after finding 
out that the National Assembly was disposed to do nothing further, referred the 
matter to the committee of subsistence, " pour etre ensuite statue ce qu'il ap- 
partiendrait ". The decree of the council is merely an approval of the request 
put in its final form, apparently by the committee, of subsistence, for it does not 
appear in the proces-verbal. It is given, however, as from the proces- 
verbal in the Mercure de France of September 19. The original is preserved at 
the Arch. Nat., R. A. D. XL 68. The assembly made prompt use of its powers, 
appointing twelve commissioners to compel the farmers to thresh their wheat and 
market the part provided for in the decree. Lacroix, I. 536-538; Revolutions de 
Paris, September 17. Loustalot regarded the scheme as vicious, and notes that 
the king in his decree had seemed more solicitous than the Paris authorities for 
the rights of other municipalities. He also notes the anomaly that the assembly 
had put below the decree " ordonne l'execution ". No. IX. 32-33. Bailly asked 
the communal assembly at this time to authorize him to solicit letters patent which 
should attribute to him the judicial powers formerly possessed by the lieutenant- 
general of police. The assembly was then on bad terms with the mayor and 
refused. Before this, late in August, he and four assessors were given the powers 
which had belonged to the Hotel de Ville in its jurisdiction over merchants 
trading by the Seine and over offenses committed on the river or its bridges. 
Lacroix, I. 22S-226, 22,2, 318-319; Bailly, Memoires, II. 271. 



Municipal Politics in Paris in 1789 269 

III. 

The communal assembly had been brought together primarily to 
prepare a plan of municipal government. Its efforts are interesting 
especially because of the fundamental assumption upon which they 
rested. The uprising of Paris in July had compromised the au- 
thority of the old monarchy. Similar movements in other cities had 
created so many centres of resistance that the unity of the kingdom 
was temporarily destroyed. At the same time the French people, 
or rather the bourgeoisie, working with a common enthusiasm for 
a new order of things, were becoming more united and were gaining 
a spirit really national. From their successful resistance as well as 
from the actual exercise of power it was only a short step to the 
attitude that each town had a right to organize itself and that within 
the limits of its local affairs its authority was supreme. This ten- 
dency toward local autonomy — what in 1793 would have been called 
" federalism " — lost its original character as soon as it became clear 
that power had passed from the hands of the king into those of the 
National Assembly. Indeed the movement was transformed into a 
successful effort to federate, in spirit at least, these local centres of 
revolutionary activity, in order to strengthen the National Assembly 
against the forces of reaction. In the fall, the assertion of local 
authority against the Assembly was denounced as little short of 
treason. 1 Consequently the agitation over questions of municipal 
organization resulted in nothing more than administrations which 
were to continue until the National Assembly had provided by law 
the machinery of local government. 

The question of the right of Paris or any other town to organize 
itself came up during the controversy over the efforts of the electors 
to give themselves successors. When Mirabeau proposed a delega- 
tion from the National Assembly to the districts of Paris to aid them 
in constituting an administrative committee, he also suggested that 
this committee should prepare a municipal constitution. Thereupon 
Mounier asked him if he meant to authorize all the towns to muni- 
cipalize themselves after their own fashion. This task, added 
Mounier, belonged to the National Assembly; to abandon it to the 
towns would be to create states within the state and to multiply 
sovereignties. Such a danger did not alarm Mirabeau, and in his 
reply he cited the example of the United States, which left to the 
members of the Union the details of their government, provided 
these were not in contravention to the republican form ; and argued 
that similarly the towns of France could provide the local organiza- 

1 Cf. the case of Mounier and the Estates of Dauphiny ; see also decree of 
October 26, Duvergier, I. 54. 



270 H. E. Bourne 

tion suited to their needs, making it consistent with the general 
principles of the new order already laid down, that is to say, na- 
tional representation, union of the three orders, freedom of election, 
and the like. Although Mirabeau's original notion was not adopted, 
the new plan of municipal government was based on the same funda- 
mental idea. 1 

The author of the plan was Brissot, who was a federalist in 1789, 
even if he was not in 1793 in the sense of the word used by his 
enemies. 2 Although the commission which had been appointed to 
present the plan departed in some notable details from his sug- 
gestions, their recommendations were in the main his work. 3 He 
was convinced of the right of a community to regulate its local 
affairs without the intervention of the national authority. In the 
preamble, written for the plan but not published with it, he declared 
that the inhabitants of any city, a term which he uses in the classical 
sense, " have the right ... to establish an administration and a 
police for everything common to them as such." After defining the 
sphere of action of the cities in their union as provinces, and of the 
provinces as parts of the kingdom, he says that the two local admin- 
istrations must be conformed in their principles to the national con- 
stitution, and that this conformity must be expressed in a sanction 
or charter of incorporation given by the national legislature, which 
is the federal bond uniting all parts of a vast empire. Paris, he 
added, was so large that it must be considered both as a city and 
as a province. 4 

1 Proces-verbal de I'Assemblee N ationale , July 23 ; " Dix-Neuvieme Lettre du 
Comte de Mirabeau a ses commettans," Courrier de Provence, pp. 51 et seqq. 
Cf. Brissot, Patriote frangais, no. IX. 

2 It is to be noted that the term " federal " in French Revolutionary history 
means almost the converse of " federal " in American history. It was used to 
imply a scheme to destroy the unity of the kingdom, later the " unity and indi- 
visibility of the republic ". Brissot's original federalism was not tinctured with 
distrust of the central authority. He wished out of locally organized powers to 
create new channels for the exercise of executive authority, since the old chan- 
nels were broken, " the intendants have disappeared, the tribunals are dumb, the 
soldiers are against the executive power and for the people ". See " Avis au 
Peuple Frangais," in Patriote frangais, no. XIV. 4. 

3 This is shown by a comparison of the final plan with Brissot's project, 
which was published November 15 when it became clear that the National 
Assembly was to provide a municipal law for Paris. The title was Observations 
sur le plan de la Municipality de Paris ; suivies du Plan original et d'un declaration 
des Droits des Municipalites. See further, Patriote frangais, nos. XV. 4, XVI. 3, 
and Bailly, Memoir es, II. 200-201. The Courrier de Provence attributed some 
influence to Sieyes, Castellane, and Montmorency, no. XXII. 8. 

* Patriote frangais, nos. XVI., XVII. Brissot had already set forth the same 
theory in a speech made in his district assembly July 21. Discours, etc. (Bibl. Nat., 
piece). In his no. XXIII. he hints that his scheme was criticized as making a 
republic of Paris and defends the theory from such charges. Cf. Bailly, Memoires, 



Municipal Politics in Fans in 1789 2 7 1 

Whether the commission altogether approved of Brissot's fed- 
eralism or not, it did not decrease the powers he ascribed to Paris ; 
on the contrary it added to them. In agreement with him Paris was 
to assess and collect all taxes, and even to supervise the Bank of 
Discount 1 and the postal service. But while he, consistent with his 
general theory, assigned to the local government no jurisdiction be- 
yond the city and the faubourgs, the commission recommended that 
it assume the powers of the ancient bureau de la ville and of the 
lieutenant-general of police, particularly in the matter of food 
supply. The assembly virtually acted on this recommendation when 
it applied to the government for the powers granted by the decree 
of September 7. 

One of the significant features of the plan was the attempt to 
put an end to the constant meetings of the district assemblies. They 
were henceforward to be convened only for elections. Brissot 
argued that this provision was prompted by anxiety to save the time 
of the citizens. As a member of a district assembly he had in July 
claimed for it almost as much legislative and executive authority 
within its sphere as for the towns within their jurisdiction. After 
his election to the communal assembly his attitude changed, until a 
few months later he declared, " Since the districts have taken it into 
their heads to meet constantly, many of them have disputed the 
powers of their representatives at the commune, opposed decrees of 
the National Assembly, and even judged the judges." 2 The Na- 
tional Assembly agreed substantially with this feeling, although it 
took care not to express it so emphatically, for the municipal law 
given to Paris in 1790 provided that after the elections had been 
completed the district assemblies should be dissolved. The com- 
mission's plan struck two other blows at district aspirations after 
supremacy. It declared that each " representative " belonged to the 
commune as a whole and could not be revoked by the district as- 
semblies. Furthermore the provision that the president of each dis- 
trict should be selected from its group of deputies gave the muni- 
cipal assembly a direct hold on the districts. 

The machinery of government provided for in the plan was in 
part actually set in motion in October and November and remained 
until the system voted by the National Assembly was substituted for 

II. 258-260. When in November the National Assembly announced the intention 
of providing a special municipal law for Paris, Brissot insisted on the correct- 
ness of his theory though he waived its practice in view of the imperative need 
of harmony. See no. CXVIII. The Revolutions de Paris persisted in the original 
attitude ; see no. XXI. 

1 The Bank of Discount had become a quasi-government institution. 

2 Patriote frangais, no. CCIX. 



272 H. E. Bourne 

it a year later. Moreover, several of its features were preserved 
in this system. There was to be a general assembly of three hun- 
dred members, sixty of whom were to constitute a council of admin- 
istration, and of these sixty the principal officers — mayor, com- 
mandant-general, eight aldermen, solicitor, his two assistants, and 
eight heads of departments — formed the bureau de la ville. 1 The 
mayor was merely the presiding officer of all assemblies and all de- 
partments of the municipality. The final decision in administrative 
matters was to belong to the presidents of the departments, soon to 
be called lieutenants of the mayor. The assembly was to elect the 
members of the council and to choose those administrators who, 
with the mayor and commandant-general, were to form the bureau. 
Its other powers were left vague. Nor were the functions of the 
council stated more clearly. The commission was apparently con- 
cerned rather with elections and terms of office than with the busi- 
ness of the council when once constituted, merely implying that it 
was to submit to the assembly matters which the bureau had pre- 
pared. The administration of the different quarters of the city was 
entrusted to district committees, granted powers of arrest, though 
without the right to try cases. 2 

IV. 

The plan of municipal government was submitted to the as- 
sembly August 12. The commission had done its work with reason- 
able promptness. If the assembly pushed forward the discussion 
with equal zeal, the object which Mayor Bailly had in view, namely 
the immediate organization of an effective administration, could be 
accomplished. But the assembly, distracted by its many tasks, did 
practically nothing. As the end of the month approached Bailly be- 
came restless. He noted signs of discontent also in the districts. 
His irritation was increased by the manner in which the assembly 
ignored him. None of its acts disturbed him as much as its repeated 
criticism of the committee of subsistence with which he constantly 
worked. He attributed these attacks partly to the presence on the 
committee of several electors who had never been formally super- 

1 The eight departments were : subsistence, police, public buildings, public 
works, hospitals, domain or finances, taxes, National Guard. There was a 
ninth, the Tribunal contentieux , a species of administrative court composed of 
the eight aldermen and presided over by the mayor. 

2 The full title of the plan was Projet du plan de Municipalite de la Ville 
de Paris, presente a I'Assemblee generate des Representants de la Commune par 
ses commissaires (Bibl. Nat. Lb 40 1185, octavo, 52 pp.); see also Motifs des 
commissaires, pour adopter le Plan de Municipalite, qu'ils ont presente a I'Assem- 
blee generale des Representants de la Commune (Bibl. Nat., piece). Lacroix, 
Actes, I. 185, and note 5, pp. 195-198. 



Municipal Politics in Paris in 1789 273 

seded. Impelled by these considerations, 1 he resolved to force an 
immediate organization of the administration and to restrict the as- 
sembly to the task of discussing the plan of government. 2 In at- 
tempting to carry out his scheme Bailly addressed himself directly 
to the districts. He proposed that the bureau described in the plan 
be chosen by an electoral assembly convened for this purpose. The 
whole operation would, he thought, be completed in eight days. 3 

From his proposals it is clear that Bailly was determined to re- 
cover a position at the head of affairs. " The mayor ", he said, " is 
the chief of the municipal administration ; he is its active principle." 
He complained that the new plan did not give the mayor the in- 
fluence that should belong to him and declared that assemblies could 
not administer. Although Bailly made a passing allusion to the 
continuance of the assembly at the Hotel de Ville, in order that it 
might prepare its observations on the plan, his letter seemed to lead 
toward suppressing it altogether. 4 The significance of the blow 
was heightened because it was prepared secretly. None but his 
favorite committee of subsistence was consulted. In order to 
strengthen his position Bailly sought support in the districts by con- 
ceding to them full local legislative power. 

Bailly did not intend to call into existence another assembly. 
His meaning was sufficiently clear, but he had reckoned without 

1 For illustrations of Bailly's troubles with the assembly, see his Memoires, 
II. 196-197, 263, 269, 270, 280-281, 348-351 ; Lacroix, Actes, I. 465, 469-470, 
480, 488 ; Godard, Expose, 50 ; on presence of electors, see Lacroix, I. 307-308 ; 
also the journal Versailles et Paris of August 22 ; Extrait de Registres . . . de St. 
Nicholas-du-Chardonnet, du 7 sept. (Bibl. Nat., piece), and record of assembly 
of Saint-Roch for September 4 (Bibl. Nat. MSS. fr. nouv. acq. 2665, fol. 31). 
A new committee of subsistence was formed September 8. See Bailly, Memoires, 
II. 363; Lacroix, I. 451, 455, 510, 512; Journal de Paris of September 21; 
Revolutions de Paris, no. IV. 18, 38, no. VI. 32, no. VII. 3. Jefferson, who was 
still in Paris, had not much opinion of the work of this committee. In a letter 
to Madison, August 28, he writes of " the palpable impotence of the city admin- 
istration to furnish bread to the city". Works (Ford's ed.), V. 107. 

2 A few days before Bailly acted in this matter, a pamphlet was published by 
a scientist, Ramond de Carbonnieres, criticizing the plan of government and 
proposing one by which the mayor could not be reduced to the inactivity of a 
doge and by which legislative power should be left definitely to the districts. 
The fundamental ideas of the pamphlet and of Bailly's subsequent letter to the 
districts are so similar that it is difficult to resist the inference that Bailly was 
influenced by these suggestions. The title of the pamphlet was A mes concitoyens, 
Paris 26 Aout, 1789 (Bibl. Nat., piece). 

3 Bailly's letter is given in Lacroix, Actes, I. 392-395. 

* Lacroix says (I. 408), "On peut lire et relire sa lettre, on n'y trouvera pas 
un mot qui ne laisse supposer que les cent quatre-vingts sont condamnes a 
disparaitre des que la nouvelle delegation des districts sera formee." But Bailly 
expressly says in reference to the plan, " Mais l'assemblee generale des Represen- 
tants de la Commune doit y faire d'abord ses observations." 



274 H. E. Bourne 

taking account of the probable action of the existing assembly. 
This body learned of the letter the day on which it was despatched, 
and the astonishment and indignation of the deputies were bound- 
less. The mayor was sent for and was obliged to defend himself 
against their angry complaints. In order to snatch victory from the 
midst of defeat they assumed .that it was necessary to adopt Bailly's 
suggestion but not his method of carrying it into effect ; for this, 
they urged, would thwart his real intentions. Accordingly the dis- 
tricts were asked to accept those parts of the plan which concerned 
the organization of the general assembly, the council, the bureau, 
and the districts themselves. After the assembly had chosen the 
council the two hundred and forty members remaining were to 
occupy themselves with the examination of the plan of government, 
modify it according to the observations of the districts, and finally 
submit it to these for sanction. The citizens were plainly warned 
against the mayor's original scheme, and an apology was offered for 
the assembly's delays which reflected upon him and upon his com- 
mittee of subsistence. The record showed that this was done in the 
" presence of the mayor and in agreement with him," and he was 
required to affix his signature. He did this, he afterward explained, 
to avoid scandal. 1 

The proposition of the assembly placed the more ambitious dis- 
tricts in a predicament. The titles of the plan which they were 
asked to accept contained the three limitations on their powers 
which have already been explained. There was no method, short 
of total rejection, by which they could give a qualified consent to the 
project and be sure that their conditions would be respected. Some 
of them preferred the mayor's plan, but the majority supported the 
assembly. Out of its one hundred and eighty members one hun- 
dred and fifteen were returned to sit in the new assembly. This did 
not mean that the districts would abide by features of the project 
to which they objected seriously. Nearly half ventured to take 
from the assembly its principal electoral duty by each designating 
one of their five deputies as a member of the council. The district 
assemblies also continued to meet as before, and in several instances 
they succeeded in revoking deputies by bringing a pressure upon 
them which the communal assembly was powerless to prevent. 2 

1 Lacroix, I. 396-399 ; Chronique de Paris, I. 39 ; Patriote frangais, no. 
XXXI. This was the first time Bailly had been asked to sign the record since 
July 30. 

2 Several districts gave conditional adhesions, notably the Recollets, Ex- 
trait du Registre . . . du premier Septembre, 1789 (Bibl. Nat., piece) ; Bancal 
des Issarts urged in the district of the Carmes that the president of the district 
was disqualified from being also a deputy, Arretes (Bibl. Nat., piece) ; see for 
action of Saint-Roch Bibl. Nat. MSS. fr. nouv. acq. 2665, fol. 36. The practical 



Municipal Politics in Paris in 1789 275 

V. 
If Bailly's municipal coup d'etat be judged by the time the new 
assembly took to organize the provisional administration, it was a 
failure. The assembly met September 19, but it was the middle of 
November before the government was in working order. This was 
partly due to the controversy with the districts over the method of 
choosing councilors. 1 After some resistance the assembly yielded 
and those districts which originally had not designated one of their 
deputies to serve as a member of the council did this. The atten- 
tion of the assembly was also absorbed by the new problems which 
the events of October 5 and 6 presented. About the middle of 
October Bailly hinted that, as it had given up the work of admin- 
istration, certain matters be turned over to him, but the deputies 
were deaf. 2 

Before the administrative organization was completed scruples 
began to arise about its legal standing. This concerned especially 
the department of police. Some persons argued that with the sup- 
pression of the office of lieutenant-general of police the jurisdiction 
which he exercised had passed to the Chatelet. Such doubts show 
that the period when ordinary laws could be ignored in the name 
of public necessity was passing away. The first to realize the dif- 
ficulty were naturally those upon whom heavy responsibilities had 
been placed. To clear up the situation it was proposed that the 
National Assembly should be requested to grant to the mayor and 
the administrators the powers of administration and police within 
the city, and the control of provisions without its limits, which had 
formerly been possessed by the lieutenant-general of police, the 
Hotel de Ville, or special commissioners. If such a request were 
granted, it would extend the authority conferred by the king's 

acceptance of the assembly's proposals, with these exceptions, left the functions 
of the new assembly somewhat undefined. Several districts urged that its duty 
was to report on the plan of government ; others asserted that it should still 
watch over administration ; see Extrait des Deliberations . . . de Ste. Opportune 
(Bibl. Nat., piece) and Extrait du proces-verbal des Mathnrins du 7 sept (Bibl. 
Nat., piece). Cf. Lacroix, II. 2-3, although this summary does not touch the 
point in question. 

1 Patriote frangais, no. LIV. 4. As examples of the attitude of the districts, 
see action of St. Marcel, in Lacroix, II. 116 ; Extrait du Registre des Deliberations 
du District des Premontres. du 28 Septembre (Bibl. Nat., piece). 

2 The members of the council had been chosen by October 3, but the events of 
the fifth and sixth delayed the first session until the eighth. Lacroix, II. 151, 
216. After choosing the heads of two departments the assembly abandoned this 
work to the council. The bureau was organized October 20, and a few days later 
assumed to be the sole administrative body. Ibid., 493. Bailly's suggestion to 
the assembly is ibid., 299-300. The official who had served as treasurer under 
the old government was elected to the same position. 



276 H. E. Bourne 

council in the matter of the grain-trade. The project found many 
enemies even in the communal assembly. Some objected to an ap- 
peal to the National Assembly, insisting that the districts should be 
consulted, others declared that the assembly should devote itself 
wholly to an examination of the plan of municipal organization, 
leaving everything to be managed as it had been. The council pro- 
tested against this decision and resolved to negotiate directly with 
the National Assembly. Meanwhile the project had been restricted 
in its scope, providing merely for the department of police. The 
deputation appeared in the National Assembly with Bailly at its 
head. He explained that the communal assembly would un- 
doubtedly have sent the project themselves had they not been ab- 
sorbed by their labors on the plan of government. He urged that 
the responsibility to which the administrators were subjected de- 
manded some rule of action, since it was impossible to answer for 
the use of an indefinite and arbitrary power. The project proposed 
that real criminals be turned over to the Chatelet as before. Mere 
disturbers of the peace were to be brought before a member of the 
district committee, who had power to send them to the city prison. 
The lieutenant in charge of the department of police or one of his 
councilors was to interrogate the prisoners each day, with the au- 
thority to release or to condemn to brief imprisonment or to a fine. 
More serious cases were to be brought before a tribunal of police 
made up of the mayor, his lieutenant, and eight adjunct notables. 
This tribunal could imprison for a month or fine to the amount of 
one hundred livres. When the communal assembly heard of this 
step, it showed intense irritation. Some of the districts also com- 
plained of the action of the council. The new department of police 
was fully organized by the middle of November ; and the committee 
of police, upon which several electors still served, was released from 
the arduous duties which it had performed for four months. 1 

Before the new police tribunal was established, the municipality 
received extraordinary powers for the suppression of riots. The 
immediate occasion was the atrocious murder of the baker Francois, 
wrongfully accused of keeping back a part of the day's baking. An 
event so sinister, happening just after the National Assembly had 
begun its sessions in Paris, naturally alarmed the communal as- 
sembly. Only the day before, a deputation with Bailly at its head 
had declared that it was the duty of Paris to surround the National 
Assembly " with repose and tranquility." The whole nation had 

1 See Moniteur, II. 227, November 24; Lacroix, II. 418-419, 427-428, 437-438, 
444, 479-480, 483. Text of decree, ibid., 579-582. Attitude of communal assembly, 
ibid., 542 ; cf. Patriote frangais, no. XC. 



Municipal Politics in Paris in 1789 277 

been assured in a solemn address, when the king had been brought 
to Paris and the National Assembly had announced its intentions 
to follow him thither, that all the inhabitants of the city were ready 
to shed their blood to preserve the independence of its deliberations 
and the personal security of its members. 1 If murderous mobs were 
to parade the streets with the head of any unfortunate man they 
suspected of treason, the deputies who had refused to come to Paris 
on the ground that in this turbulent city freedom of speech was im- 
possible would be justified by the facts. Accordingly the communal 
assembly sent two or three deputations in rapid succession to the 
National Assembly asking for the enactment of a martial law which 
would permit the dispersal of mobs by force. Such a measure had 
already been under consideration. It was put into form and en- 
acted the same day. The king sanctioned it immediately, and the 
following day it was publicly proclaimed. 2 

This law gave to the municipality the right upon its own judg- 
ment of the facts to decide when the occasion had arrived for the 
use of force against a mob. The signal should be the display of a 
red flag from the windows of the Hotel de Ville and in the streets 
and squares of the city. Instantly all assemblages of people with 
or without arms become criminal. If the mob does not disperse, 
the soldiers, preceded by the red flag and accompanied by at least 
one municipal officer, are to march to the spot. In order that peace- 
ful citizens may have an opportunity to retire and that just griev- 
ances may be heard, the crowd may appoint a deputation of six 
persons to present their requests, after which it must disperse at 
once. If it does not disperse, there are to be three summonses and 
then the soldiers are to fire. Even radical journalists like Loustalot 
acknowledged that such a law was necessary, and Brissot regarded 
it as a masterpiece of precision, of foresight, and of just propor- 
tion between crime and penalty. One of the members of the com- 
munal committee of police afterward declared that from the enact- 
ment of this law dated the revival of public tranquility, and that 
by the first of November Paris ceased to be the theatre of factions. 3 

1 Bailly's speech, is given in Lacroix, II. 345-346 ; the address of the Com- 
mune, ibid., 245-247. It is to the credit of French justice that the leaders of the 
Frangois mob were tried immediately and hanged within thirty-six hours of the 
commission of the crime. 

2 Lacroix, II. 363, 364, note 4, 377-379; text of law, 385-386; Duvergier, 

I. 52-53- 

3 Revolutions de Paris, no. XVI. The quotation from this journal by Lacroix, 

II. 435, is misleading. Patriote frangais, no. LXXVI. ; Chronique de Paris, I. 
259 ; Godard, Expose, 90. There was slight opposition in one or two districts ; 
for this, see Lacroix, II. 422-423 ; Revolutions de Paris, no. XVI. 3 ; Journal de 
Paris, October 31 ; Bataillon de Saint Martin-des-Champs (Bibl. Nat., piece) ; 



278 H. E. Bourne 

VI. 

Until the meeting of the second communal assembly, September 
19, the controversy over functions and powers had been chiefly 
between the assembly and the mayor. It now became a struggle 
between the assembly and the districts. Intimations of such a con- 
flict had not been wanting during the earlier period, but the dis- 
tricts were then too busily occupied with their own organization to 
be jealously watchful of the Hotel de Ville. The local police had 
fallen into their hands, and their military patrols were the sole 
means of preserving order. They were obliged also to exercise in 
minor matters a rude though not always unfriendly justice. 1 The 
organization which they adopted to meet these conditions varied 
with the character and aspirations of each district. Several drew 
up an elaborate constitution and provided themselves with a full 
panoply of committees — " grand ", " central ", finance, subsistence, 
military affairs, and police. Their critics accused them of doing 
this to satisfy the thirst of the more ambitious members for office. 
Brissot remarked that there was not a petty lawyer who did not 
aspire to be a Demosthenes, not a student who was not determined 
to become commandant. In some districts, he added, there were 
more officers than soldiers. 2 The general assembly of the district 
theoretically included all persons — clergy, nobles, or bourgeois — 
who possessed the qualifications fixed for the original primary as- 
semblies. After the first excitement was over, service in the civic 
guard and in the assemblies became wearisome. Government in the 
districts, as afterward in Paris, fell into the hands of an energetic 
and sometimes noisy minority. 3 

The desire of the more ambitious district politicians to carry out 
their schemes or to provide for the needs of their own localities 
without delay gave color to the accusation that Paris was divided 
into " sixty little republics." Some districts were in the habit of 

Appel des sieurs Martin et Duval (Bibl. Nat., piece) ; District de St. Martin-des- 
Champs (Bibl. Nat., piece). 

1 The larger part of the " Deliberations du comite civil du district des Ma- 
thurins " is taken up with such affairs (Bibl. Nat. MSS. fr. nouv. acq. 2696, 
fol. 48-120). 

2 Quenard, Tableau historique, 48 ; Revolutions de Paris, no. VII. 7 ; Patriote 
frangais, no. XIX. The district of Premontres had an elaborate constitution. 
For that of St. Etienne-du-Mont, see Reglement provisoire (Bibl. Nat., piece) 
under date of July 2j. For problem in other districts, see Bibl. Nat. MSS. fr. 
nouv. acq. 2670, fol. 2-4, 6, 53, and 2696, fol. 40. 

3 It is difficult to form an exact estimate of numbers in the district assem- 
blies where so many records have been destroyed. On July 22 there were 130 
in Saint-Roch out of about 2,500 citizens resident in the district. On September 
11 at the Mathurins there were 140 votes cast in the election of the new deputies. 
Hardy MS., " Mes Loisirs," VIII. 471. 



Municipal Politics in Paris in 1789 279 

placarding their decrees even outside their own limits. One of them 
ordered the release of certain prisoners from La Force. When the 
concierge did not obey, he was summoned to appear before the cen- 
tral committee; and the threat was added that, if he did not come 
voluntarily, soldiers would be sent to fetch him. Only the inter- 
vention of the communal assembly and of Lafayette prevented this. 
Other districts went to the arsenal and seized cannon and powder. 
In several instances expeditions were made into the country in 
search of arms. Sometimes it was grain or flour that these expedi- 
tions sought. In one instance a district stopped a convoy of flour 
in Paris on its way to the market and distributed the flour to 
bakeries within the district. 1 In another case a district assumed the 
functions of the former lieutenant-general of police and issued 
formal decrees regulating, presumably within its own limits, public 
carriages, speed of driving, butchers' shops, etc. 2 There was no in- 
tention to cause disunion, but such inconsiderate use of power led 
toward actual anarchy. 

The reluctance of the district politicians to part with power even 
after they had constituted a municipal assembly was illustrated in 
the spasmodic attempts to form a central committee or clearing- 
house for the liquidation of conflicting opinions. The scheme was 
first proposed when the question of substituting an assembly for the 
electors was agitating the districts. Hardly had the new assembly 
been organized before its attention was called to the existence of 
another assembly holding sessions at the archbishop's palace and 
calling itself the Central Committee of Correspondence. Several 
of the districts which approved the scheme were, however, anxious 
that it should not take the semblance of a regular assembly with 
officers, records, debates, etc. According to this view it should 
only collect and transmit information in order that a common policy 
might control the action of all the districts. Others argued that its 
duty was to watch the municipal assembly, which, said they, was 
far from being infallible. So many districts were either indifferent 
or opposed to the idea that it could not then be embodied in an 
effective organization. Late in October another attempt was made. 
At this time the controversy between the assembly and the districts 
was becoming acute. Officials or commissioners from forty-two 

1 Extrait des deliberations de I'assemblee du district de Ste. Opportune, du 
5 aout, 1789 (Bibl. Nat., piece) ; Discours of M. Godard, ex-president of the 
Blancs-Manteaux (Bibl. Nat., piece) ; Revolutions de Paris, nos. V. 31, 33, 
VI. 32, VII. 7-1 1 ; Bailly, Memoires, II. 282, 314, 353, 371 ; Hardy MS., 444-445; 
Lacroix, I. 276-277, 462-463, 551-552, 562-563. 

2 For example, Extrait des Deliberations du District des Petits-Augustins 
du 4 aout, 1789 (Bibl. Nat, piece). Cf. another case, Bailly, II. 258. 

AM. HIST. REV., VOL. XI. — 19. 



280 H. E. Bourne 

districts held a meeting. Although at their second meeting only 
twenty-three were represented, a plan of action was sent to the dis- 
tricts, which, if adopted, would have dispensed with the communal 
assembly. Each district was to communicate its projects to the 
other districts, which were to meet at once and formulate their views. 
If these were favorable, the deputies of the district which originally 
proposed the project were to draw it up at the Central Committee 
in the presence of the deputies of the other districts, after which all 
should be " obliged to conform to it as the decision of the majority." 
This plan of direct government got no farther because a majority of 
the districts were not yet in the mood to crowd the communal as- 
sembly out of the place it had been created to fill. It was only in 
the spring of 1790 that an assembly at the archbishop's palace, with 
the assistance of Mayor Bailly, succeeded for a time in posing as 
the real agency for communal action. 1 

VII. 

The issue between the municipal assembly and the more am- 
bitious district leaders turned upon the question whether the as- 
sembly could make necessary regulations or ordinances without con- 
sulting the districts ; and whether, after the council and bureau were 
organized, it should not restrict itself to the completion of the plan 
of municipal government. The legislative power, these men in- 
sisted, belonged to the districts. Some added that even the Na- 
tional Assembly could not interfere in purely local concerns. 
Others sought to weaken the position of the municipal assembly by 
arguing the provisional character of the Paris government and 
asserting that, until the National Assembly had given the city a 
municipal constitution, the municipal assembly had no right to pass 
laws or ordinances. 2 

1 For the earlier projects of such an organization, see Extrait du proces- 
verbal de I'assemblee du district de VOratoire (Bibl. Nat., piece) ; Voeu d'un 
citoyen (Bibl. Nat., piece) ; Discours prononce par M. Javon, probably before July 
28 (Bibl. Nat., piece) ; Extrait des deliberations . . . de St. Louis-en-l'Isle (Bibl. 
Nat., piece), July 30 ; Extrait du proces-verbal de I'Assemblee du district des 
Mathurins, du 7 aout 1789 (Bibl. Nat., piece) ; see also Lacroix, I. 30, 33-36. 
For the later period, see Chronique de Paris, no. LXX. ; Journal de la Munici- 
pality et des Districts, October 28, 30, November 4, 6 ; Extrait d'une Deliberation 
du D. des Mathurins, November 6 (Bibl. Nat., piece) ; Revolutions de Paris, 
no. XVIII. ; see also Lacroix, II. 533-534, 537-541- 

2 The point of view of the opposition districts is illustrated in the follow- 
ing : for Saint-Roch's declaration of November 9, see Lacroix, II. 553, cf. 642; 
Addresse Respectueuse du D. de St. Leu a I'Assemblee Nationale (Bibl. Nat., 
piece) ; for Premontres, Extraits, of September 28 and October 2, and Observa- 
tions sommaires, October 31 (Bibl. Nat., pieces) ; Extrait of November 18 (Arch. 
Nat. C 33, no. 286) ; for St. Germain-des-Pres, Revolutions de Paris, XVIL, cf. 



Municipal Politics in Paris in ij8g 2 8 1 

Much of the opposition of the districts to the communal assembly 
received its impulse from the decision to form six companies of 
chasseurs which should guard the city gates and assist the tax 
officers in collecting the octroi. Ever since the uprising in July it 
had been difficult to collect this tax. The loss could ill be endured 
because the government was threatened with bankruptcy. If the 
gates were to be guarded effectively, this duty must be intrusted to 
paid companies. The citizens of the districts were unwilling to 
perform their ordinary guard duties and could not be depended 
upon for such services. Moreover there were many soldiers in the 
city, particularly Swiss, whom it had been impossible to incorporate 
in the paid companies of the districts and who could not be sent 
home. Several districts objected to further military organizations 
of this sort. One declared that it would never abandon the con- 
trol of the gates within its own limits unless the organization of 
the chasseurs had been approved by the majority of the districts. 
This agitation did not prevent the communal assembly from voting 
another company to guard the central market, where serious dis- 
orders were endangering the flour trade. 1 

Lacroix, II. 576 ; for St. Honore, Extrait des Registres (Arch. Nat., C 33, no. 
286 bis) ; Extrait des Deliberations de I'Assemblee generate du D. des Petits- 
Augustins, September 19 (Bibl. Nat., piece) ; St. Marcel, Extrait des registres, 
October 20 (Bibl. Nat., piece); Saint-Severin, Assemblee generate da 20 Nov. 
(Arch. Nat. C 33, no. 268 bis) ; St. Louis-de-la-Culture, decrees, etc., of November 
9, 16, 19. For Cordeliers, see below. Several of these decrees or deliberations 
are quoted In whole or part by Lacroix in his notes. The most enthusiastic sup- 
porter of direct legislation was Loustalot, who argued that the function of the 
communal assembly was to lay propositions in a simple form before the districts. 
He believed that much might be done also in large assemblies like those held in 
Rome, and he published diagrams of an ingenious sounding-board which would 
place the speaker's mouth at the foci of two parabolas, the curve of one immedi- 
ately behind him and that of the other beneath him. The representative sys- 
tem he denounced as a relic of medieval feudalism and simply a new form of 
slavery. Revolutions de Paris, September 19, no. XIV. 15-21, XV. 15-16, XVII., 
XVIII. 8-14, XXI. 20-21. The Abbe Fauchet, a popular preacher, later one of 
the Girondist group, advocated similar views in the communal assembly itself ; 
see Motion faite par I' abbe Fauchet, November 20, 25, December 2 (Bibl. Nat., 
piece). The view favorable to the communal assembly is illustrated in the fol- 
lowing : St. Jacques-de-l'H6pital, Extraits des diiferentes Deliberations, etc. 
(Arch. Nat. C 33, no. 286) ; Ste. Opportune, November 21, Extrait (Bibl. Nat., 
piece) ; St. Germain-l'Auxerrois, in Lacroix, II. 674-675 ; Carmes, ibid., III. 6. 
1 The question of the chasseurs came up in connection with nearly all theo- 
retical criticisms of the assembly. The most noteworthy pronunciamiento was one 
by the Petits Augustins, in which its views were emphasized by capitals. Apropos 
of the nominations of officers it declared " que cette nomination est un ATTEN- 
TAT AUX DROITS ET LA LIBERTE DE TOUS LES CITOYENS, Qu'elle 
Annonce L'Exercice D'Une Autorite Arbitraire ", etc. (Bibl. Nat., piece) ; the 
efforts of St. Louis-la-Culture, November 9, 16, 19 (Bibl. Nat., pieces), are also 
intructive. Cf. Lacroix, II. 405-407, 476, 502-503, III. 19-22. 



282 H. E. Bourne 

The conflict between the communal assembly and the district of 
the Cordeliers, under the leadership of Danton, is the most notable 
illustration of the tendencies of the opposition. Early in October 
the Cordeliers had called upon the other districts to assist in effect- 
ing the release of the Marquis de St. Huruge, one of the noisiest 
agitators of the Palais Royal, on the ground that his arrest, made 
by the municipal officers, had been illegal. When the municipality 
instituted proceedings at the Chatelet against Marat, who in L' Ami 
du Peuple mingled criticism, rough satire, calumny, and provoca- 
tions to sedition, the district voted that it would with all its power 
defend authors within its limits against " voies de fait ", although it 
declined to resist any effort of those who were libeled to obtain re- 
dress by the ordinary processes of law. An attempt of the officers 
of the Chatelet to make an arrest was apparently considered an act 
of violence. 1 

These were simply skirmishes before the battle. Late in the 
same month the Cordeliers " enjoined " its deputies to invite the 
municipal assembly to urge upon the National Assembly the trial 
of Besenval 2 or his transver to Paris from Brie-Comte-Robert, 
where a large guard was stationed at the expense of the city. The 
assembly had already done what it could, and its members were 
irritated that the matter was raised in this way. They did not relish 
the implications of the word " enjoin ", and they seized the occa- 
sion to complain formally of the constant interference of the dis- 
tricts in administration by deliberations and decrees publicly pla- 
carded, and asked the Cordeliers in particular to refrain from pla- 
carding decrees which tended to disturb civic harmony. The reply 
of the Cordeliers was prompt. It denied that the assembly had a 
right to trace for the districts the limits of their activity until the 
National Assembly had given the city its legal organization. The 
district further declared that its deputies had agreed to take an oath 

1 Marat's case was first taken up September 25 ; Lacroix, II. 69 ; for further 
action, see ibid., 157-158, 201-202, 319-320, 344. His attacks on the municipality 
began with number VIII., two days after the journal had been changed from 
Publiciste parisien to L 'Ami du Peuple. For especially violent diatribes, see 
nos. XV. and XXVI. In no. XVIII. he tells of his experiences at the Hotel de 
Ville when summoned to appear before the assembly. In no. XXV. he called for 
the appointment of a " Tribune " armed with military power, and provoked the 
National Guard to sedition. See further, Revolutions de Paris, October 2, pp. 
34-38 ; Chronique de Paris, October 8. Marat had incidentally praised Peyrilhe, 
one of the deputies of the Cordeliers. In October 9 Peyrilhe wrote to the 
Chronique de Paris protesting " que cet eloge partant d'une plume qui distille 
la sedition et la calumnie, m'outrage et m'afflige profondement." For action of 
Cordeliers, see Extrait du Registre . . . du 7 Oct. (Bibl. Nat., piece), and 
Chronique de Paris for October 13. 

2 For the Besenval case, see the Review for January, 1905 (X. 304-305). 






Municipal Politics in Paris in Ij8g 283 

to conform to everything prescribed by their constituents. This 
oath acknowledged that as deputies they were revocable at the will 
of their constituents and that they had no authority to concur in 
any organizations of a civil or military character which should not 
first have received the sanction of the districts. When the oath was 
actually tendered to the deputies of the Cordeliers a few days later, 
three of them resigned rather than take it. The assembly refused 
to recognize these resignations as valid. Had it paused here, its 
case would have had the better chance of success, as the sequel 
proved. But it was not content with a strong defensive position; it 
undertook to force the fighting by annulling the decree of the Cor- 
deliers, by declaring the oath void, and by expelling one of the depu- 
ties of the district who had boasted that he was the originator of 
the scheme to demand an oath. Both sides appealed to the National 
Assembly and to the districts. Several districts which sympathized 
with the Cordeliers recalled their deputies, others rallied to the sup- 
port of the assembly. The situation became daily more intricate 
and embarrassing. 1 

For the National Assembly the question was also embarrassing. 
However comprehensive its functions, they certainly did not in- 
clude the decision of questions of legal theory, especially in the case 
of a city under a provisional regime organized mainly by itself. 
But the matter was referred to a committee, and its report, Novem- 
ber 23, on the whole supported the contentions of the communal 
assembly, although it declared that the assembly had exceeded its 
functions in denying the right of the Cordeliers to choose three 
deputies in place of those who had resigned. The claim of the 
Cordeliers of authority to exact an oath or to revoke its deputies is 
explicitly denied, because, declares the committee, " it is important 
that the representatives of each district fill their functions until the 
expiration of the time set by their credentials or until they have 
given their voluntary resignation, and that they be held to no other 
oath than that of filling honorably the mission which they have ac- 
cepted." According to this the communal assembly would be 
obliged to receive the newly elected members and to retain the two 
deputies who had taken the oath. Before the Assembly had an 
opportunity to take a vote, one of its members explained that already 
thirty-eight districts had rejected the decree of the Cordeliers and 

1 Lacroix, II. 463-464, 637-641, 644. The various deliberations of the 
Cordeliers are given in a little collection (Bibl. Nat., L b 40/254). For the action 
of the districts for or against the contention of the Cordeliers, see resume with 
documents in Lacroix, III. 28-32. Cf. Patriote frangais, no. CVI. Brissot's 
opinion was, " en these generate, le Peuple, en matiere de Constitution, peut 
assujetir ses Mandataires a son volonte — il ne peut pas en matiere de Legislation." 



284 H. E. Bourne 

that it was hoped the other twenty- two (sic) would speedily follow 
their example. Under the impression of this assurance, the As- 
sembly decided to close the discussion raised between the districts 
and to order that the matter should stand as it had stood before 
November 11. The effect of this was to put the communal assembly 
in the right, for if a longer discussion of the question was formally 
deprecated and the status quo ante helium was resumed, the dis- 
tricts by implication had no power to exact an oath or to revoke their 
deputies. On the other hand, if the deputies themselves yielded to 
pressure and resigned, the communal assembly had no remedy ex- 
cept vain protests. This was what happened in the Cordeliers case, 
for those who had resigned persisted in their resignation, so that 
the assembly was obliged to admit their successors. Indeed they 
did this without question. 1 

Scarcely had the storm subsided when it broke out again with 
renewed fury. This time the occasion was the long-deferred plan 
of a municipal constitution. On November 26 the National As- 
sembly had decided that Paris, on account of its immense popula- 
tion, should have a special charter, and plainly intimated that this 
charter was to be drawn up by the Assembly itself. The muni- 
cipal constitution-makers, who had approached their task with such 
elaborate and almost reverential deliberateness, were naturally 

1 For the report of the committee, see Lacroix, III. 32-33. The statement 
that a majority of the districts had rejected the pretention of the Cordeliers 
seems substantiated by an analysis of the action of the districts, sworn to in the 
presence of the mayor November 22 ; for this see ibid., 34-35. The paper is 
confirmed by the statements of the Courrier de Provence and by Brissot in his 
Patriote frangais, although the Revolutions de Paris, no. XX., accused Brissot 
of lying impudently in this matter. M. Lacroix believes that the honors rested 
with the Cordeliers. He remarks (p. 35), " jtiridiquement, la question resta indecise : 
le mandat imperatif, le droit de revocabilite permanente resterent discutables 
et discutes. Mais, en fait, le district des Cordeliers triompha ; sa volonte prevail 
malgre l'opposition de l'Assemblee des Representants de la Commune." Against 
this view stands the fact that the main contentions of the Cordeliers were 
practically abandoned by it and by its supporters, although it did maintain its 
right to substitute new deputies for those who had resigned. It is also signifi- 
cant that the Revolutions de Paris is especially bitter after the decision and 
criticizes the action of the National Assembly. M. Aulard in his article on 
" Danton au District des Cordeliers" (La Revolution frangaise, XXIV. 138) 
strangely represents the report of the National Assembly's committee as giving 
" raison aux Cordeliers ", ignoring everything in the report save what was said 
about receiving the new deputies. However exaggerated may have been the pre- 
tentions of the assembly, it is difficult to see what advantage could come from 
the attempt to render it powerless to administer a city which as yet had no 
definitive organization. The action of the districts seems to have been largely 
directed by petty jealousy concealed behind a screen of glittering principles. 
Danton himself became quiet as soon as he was chosen a member of the assembly 
in January, 1790. M. Aulard says, " Son role y fut tres efface," ibid., 142. 



Municipal Politics in Paris in 1789 285 

aroused by such a step. Two days before, they had again voted to 
take up the discussion of some scheme or of the Brissot plan. 
Brissot now made a move which if successful would have check- 
mated those who wished to begin the inquiry anew without giving 
chief attention to his plan. On the thirtieth he moved that an ad- 
dress be sent to the National Assembly explaining that Paris had 
been obliged by circumstances to organize a provisional govern- 
ment, that a committee had been asked to submit a plan for a new 
municipality, a part of which had been accepted provisionally by the 
districts, and that the " 240 " were actually engaged upon a further 
examination of this plan. The address was also to ask that the 
Assembly authorize its constitutional committee to consider this plan 
in conference with a committee to be appointed by the " 240 " in 
order that the project finally adopted might meet the special re- 
quirements of the capital as well as conform to the general prin- 
ciples of municipal law sanctioned by the National Assembly. 1 The 
news of this motion spread rapidly through the districts. Several 
of those which had already signalized themselves by their attacks on 
the communal assembly regarded the motion as a scheme to de- 
prive the districts of any influence upon the result of the constitu- 
tional discussions. Violent remonstrances were sent in before the 
deputies had had time to complete their debate. One district sent 
a deputation to the other fifty-nine asking that delegates be sent to 
the next public session of the " 240 ", to " summon them in full 
assembly to keep to the letter of their powers and even to withdraw 
without delay to the archbishop's palace to fulfil this duty ". After 
a long discussion Brissot's motion was lost, but the action taken 
involved the same principle of co-operation with the constitutional 
committee of the National Assembly; for a new commission of 
twenty-four, which was given the task of preparing the bases for the 
municipal constitution, was authorized to confer with the committee 
of the National Assembly as often as it saw fit. A sop was thrown 
to Cerberus by voting that as each article was completed it should be 
sent to the districts for approval. 2 

VIII. 

The appointment, December 2, of a new committee upon a 
municipal constitution marked the close of another period in the 

1 Lacroix, III, 82-83, and note 3, 88 et seqq. ; cf. Patriote frangais (December 
4), no. CXVIIL, and Revolutions de Paris (November 28-December 5), no. XXI. 

2 Lacroix, III. 96-99. Lacroix analyzes the action of the districts in notes 
1, 2, and 3, pp. 103 et seqq. The chairman of the new committee was the 
Marquis de Condorcet. Brissot's motion is regarded by Lacroix as accounting 
for the distrust with which even the Condorcet committee was regarded by 
the districts. 



286 H. E. Bourne 

Revolutionary career of Paris. The work done on the Brissot plan 
had not been altogether vain, for the provisional government, which 
had at length been organized, embodied its most important sug- 
gestions. Nor was the new plan destined to depart from it ma- 
terially. From this time the business of the communal assembly 
ceased to be administrative and concerned itself with the new plan 
as it was reported article by article. As soon as an article was 
completed, it was submitted to the districts. For a while the at- 
tacks of the districts ceased. It was unlikely, however, that the 
district politicians, who believed in direct government, would find 
no other occasions to illustrate their favorite theory. Indeed, the 
months which still remained before the provisional government went 
out of existence were characterized especially by the action of the 
Commune through its district assemblies. The law provided by the 
National Assembly seemed at first to put an end to their career, for 
it assigned to them chiefly electoral functions and ordered that as 
soon as the elections were completed the assemblies should close. It 
was soon discovered that even under this law there was machinery 
enough to bring them into existence again for any purpose which 
appealed to a sufficient number of citizens. It was the same instru- 
ment of revolutionary action, though differently fashioned. What 
the convening of the sections meant in 1792 or in 1793 is well under- 
stood. The consequences were the " Great Days " of August 10 
and June 2. The method was not invented by the Jacobins, it had 
been devised by the bourgeois of 1789. It might be used to over- 
throw a government which was betraying the country to the in- 
vader, but it might also bring on a Reign of Terror. 

Henry E. Bourne. 



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